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Period caricature, after de decree of 16 February 1790, monks and nuns enjoy deir new freedom

In 1793, a French dipwomat in Rome, Nicowas Jean Hugon de Bassviwwe, induwged in a provocative dispway of de tricowour, symbow of French anti-cwericaw repubwicanism. A Roman crowd attacked him and he died de next day. Four years water, when Napoweon reached as far souf as Ancona in an advance on Rome, dis incident remained a specific grievance for which France hewd de pope responsibwe - demanding and receiving 300,000 wivres as compensation for Basseviwwe's famiwy.

In 1796 French Repubwican troops under de command of Napoweon Bonaparte invaded Itawy, defeated de papaw troops and occupied Ancona and Loreto. Pius VI sued for peace. The price of persuading de French intruder to head norf again, agreed in de Treaty of Towentino, was a massive indemnity, de removaw of many works of art from de Vatican cowwections and de surrender to France of Bowogna, Ferrara and de Romagna.

However, on 28 December of dat year, a popuwar French generaw was kiwwed in a riot outside de French embassy in Rome, dus providing a new pretext furnished for invasion by de French. French army units marched to Rome, entered it unopposed on and, procwaiming a Roman Repubwic, demanded of de Pope de renunciation of his temporaw audority. Upon his refusaw to do so, Pius VI was taken prisoner, and on February 20 was uwtimatewy brought to de citadew of Vawence in France where he died.

The new pope, Pope Pius VII, was at first conciwiatory towards Napoweon, uh-hah-hah-hah. He negotiated de French Concordat of 1801 which reaffirmed de Roman Cadowic Church as de major rewigion of France and restored some of its civiw status, removing it from de audority of de Pope. Whiwe de Concordat restored some ties between France and de papacy, de agreement was swanted wargewy in favor of de state; de bawance of church-state rewations had tiwted firmwy in Napoweon Bonaparte's favor.

In 1804, Pius VII travewed to Paris to officiate at Napoweon's imperiaw coronation, uh-hah-hah-hah. On December 2, Napoweon crowned himsewf Emperor of de French in de Cadedraw of Notre Dame, Paris, in de presence of Pope Pius VII. Cwaims dat he seized de crown out of de hands of Pope Pius VII during de ceremony in order to avoid subjecting himsewf to de audority of de pontiff are apocryphaw; in fact, de coronation procedure had been agreed upon in advance.

But by 1808 rewations had deteriorated. The pope annoyed Napoweon by refusing to sanction de annuwment of his broder Jerome's marriage and, perhaps more significantwy, by not bringing de ports of de papaw states into de Continentaw System.

The resuwt was dat a French army occupied Rome in February 1808. In de fowwowing monf anoder section of de papaw states (de Marches) was annexed to de Napoweonic kingdom of Itawy. Napoweon fowwowed up dese affronts by annexing in 1809 aww dat remains of de papaw states, incwuding de city of Rome, and by announcing dat de pope no wonger has any form of temporaw audority. Pius VII responded by an immediate use of his spirituaw audority, excommunicating Napoweon himsewf and everyone ewse connected wif dis outrage. Pius VII was immediatewy arrested and removed to imprisonment in France.

These are de events which brought de entire Itawian peninsuwa under French controw by 1809. The situation remained unchanged untiw after Napoweon's defeat at Leipzig in 1813 – an event fowwowed by Austrian recovery of much of Itawy and a subseqwent seaw of approvaw at de congress of Vienna.

During de reigns of Pope Leo XII (1823–9) and Pope Gregory XVI (1831–46), Rome became strongwy identified wif de anti-wiberaw sentiments of most of de ruwing European houses of de day. The ewection of Pope Pius IX in 1846 seemed to promise a wess reactionary papacy. However, in 1848, nationawist and wiberaw revowutions began to break out across Europe; in 1849, a Roman Repubwic was decwared and de Pope fwed de city. Louis Napoweon Bonaparte, recentwy ewected president of de newwy decwared French Second Repubwic, saw an opportunity to assuage conservative Cadowic opinion in France, and in cooperation wif Austria sent troops to restore Papaw ruwe in Rome. After some hard fighting, Pius was returned to Rome by a victorious French army, and repenting of his previous wiberaw tendencies pursued a harsh, conservative powicy even more repressive dan dat of his predecessors.

Even before de Franco-Prussian War, Pius IX had foreseen de temporaw power of de Church draining away and had begun redefining de Cadowic Church as a spirituaw power dat wouwd serve as a firm buwwark against de wiberaw trends of de period.[citation needed]

The First Vatican Counciw estabwished cwear deoreticaw underpinnings to Pius IX's commitment to an intensified centrawization of eccwesiasticaw government in Rome. The counciw's companion definition of papaw infawwibiwity strengdened de energetic exercise of de papaw magisteriaw power dat was so marked a feature of de years between de first and second Vatican Counciws. The pope's primary purpose was to obtain confirmation of de position he had taken in his Sywwabus of Errors (1864), condemning a wide range of positions associated wif rationawism, wiberawism, and materiawism, and to define de doctrine concerning de church. In de dree sessions, dere was discussion and approvaw of onwy two constitutions: Dei Fiwius, de Dogmatic Constitution On The Cadowic Faif
and Pastor Aeternus, de First Dogmatic Constitution on de Church of Christ, deawing wif de primacy and infawwibiwity of de bishop of Rome when sowemnwy defining dogma.

Seven monds water, on 18 Juwy 1870, de prewates assembwed in St Peter's accepted an uncompromising dogma - dat de pope, when speaking from his drone on a matter of faif or moraws, is inspired by God and is derefore infawwibwe. Papaw infawwibiwity was merewy de most striking exampwe of de audoritarian stance now being estabwished. It must be said dat most of de dissenting bishops had weft Rome before de finaw vote. The direction in which Pius IX was taking de church was made very pwain in a document of 1864 known simpwy as de Sywwabus. It is a wist of eighty modern dat incwuded such broad topics as sociawism, civiw marriage and secuwar education, uh-hah-hah-hah. The finaw error is de concept dat 'de Roman Pontiff can and shouwd reconciwe himsewf to and agree wif progress, wiberawism and modern civiwization'.